Castleford skipper gearing up for another intense derby

Skipper Michael Shenton is expecting another big test for his Castleford Tigers team when they make the short journey to the Mobile Rocket Stadium to play Wakefield Trinity tonight.

The local derby follows hot on the heels of a red hot clash with another of the Tigers’ neighbours at Elland Road when Cas squeaked home 25-24 against Leeds Rhinos and Shenton – who sat out that game through injury – is anticipating another high intensity encounter.

Michael Shenton in action for Castleford Tigers.

He said: “They have been quality. A few of their recent results have been a bit tough and gone against them, but they’ve played some high-quality rugby.

“They have confidence in that way they are throwing the ball about and they are aggressive defensively as well.

“Look at the team, they are a pretty big team on paper, they have some talented halves and spine up the middle of it.

“They’ve been together quite a while now and I think that’s the result, you can see them playing well now because of the continuity and the experience they’ve got in that team.

“It is quite an experienced team and you’d expect them to be where they are in the table.”

The Wakefield match is the first of the Easter double-header, with Cas also hosting Warrington on Monday, but Shenton insists no-one is looking beyond the immediate game.

He explained: “You have got to attack Easter. You can’t look at it and feel sorry for yourself going into Easter because it is a tough period, no doubt about it, but you can either be left behind if you don’t do well over Easter or you can be right there at the end of it.

“If you get two wins out of two over the Easter period you are normally in a pretty good place. That’s definitely our target, but we are not looking past the Wakefield game.

“We had a really tough game there last year. We managed to sneak our way back in it, but we are definitely ready for the challenge and we know it is going to be a big challenge.”

Shenton is fit again after recovering from a back problem.

He added: “I am looking pretty well now. I was probably hit and miss for the Leeds game. We decided on the Wednesday it wasn’t the right thing to do.